Gordon Kampe studied composition with Hans-Joachim Hespos and Adriana Hölszky in Rostock and with Nicolaus A. Huber at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He has received several awards, including the Stuttgart Composition Prize, the Composer Prize of the E.-v.-Siemens Music Foundation, the Rome Prize. Professor of Composition at the HfMT Hamburg since 2017. His works for musictheatre/opera have been performed at the Ruhrtriennale, Stuttgart- and Munich State Opera, the theatres in Mainz, Giessen, Oldenburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Aalto-Theater Essen, Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals and many more.

An opera is an absurd thing. Everything should dance and sing, cry and laugh, and all this should be done as simultaneously as possible. People dance around a grave and dagger stabs are administered melodically - fantastic! »I'd rather go for the strawberries with a swing« (makes only sense in Westfalia) I say to myself, than compose sulky, discursive crispbread for the Nachtkritik. Let it rip and let the puppets dance. Until the world comes to an end - and that's soon - there will be singing and playing. My question for the symposium: when does it start?